A five-year R&D partnership valued at more than $470 million between Ericsson and the Government of Canada is set to put the country at the forefront of global development in next-generation communications technologies.
The investment, at Ericsson’s Ottawa and Montreal facilities, is expected to create and upskill hundreds of jobs – strengthening the sites as global leaders in 5G Advanced, 6G, AI, Cloud RAN, and Core Network technologies.
The investment will also support the expansion of research facilities and staff support for quantum computing at Ericsson’s recently established Quantum Research hub in Montreal.
“Ericsson is proudly commemorating 70 years of innovation and operations in Canada this year. Today, we demonstrate our continued commitment to Canada with this high-tech R&D investment announcement, said Jeanette Irekvist, President of Ericsson Canada.
“The benefits of this project will strengthen Canada’s technology expertise that is second-to-none, will bolster Ericsson’s world-class R&D centres, and is a testament to the concentration of talent here in the Ottawa-area and in Montreal.”
The new investment will also enable Ericsson Canada to onboard up to 60 additional interns per year – 300 across the five-year timeline – to boost ongoing academic partnerships. Most of these students will be based in the Montreal and Ottawa R&D centres.
Already Ericsson’s key North American R&D facility, the Ottawa site occupies 25,000 square metres – of which more than 4,300 square metres is solely dedicated to lab operations, including the recently established Ericsson Open Lab.